The popularity of cellular communication devices has dramatically increased in recent years. This increase in popularity is due in large part to the advancement of technology and the decreasing cost of equipment and services. Many, if not most, people own or use a mobile device with cellular communication capability on a daily basis. As a result of the growing customer base, cellular communication service providers have responded by dramatically increasing their infrastructure and network coverage so as to support the increased demand.
Cellular communication service providers have endeavored to improve their cellular communication networks by increasing bandwidth to accommodate the increasing number of cellular communication customers. Nevertheless, there is still not enough bandwidth to accommodate every mobile device user at the same time. Indeed, the cellular communication network's basic design is premised on the assumption that not every mobile device user will attempt to access the cellular communication network at the same time. Thus, cellular communication networks are sized and deployed to accommodate a subset of mobile device users at any given moment. In other words, cellular communication networks are not intended to permit every mobile device user to access the network at the same time. Instead, service providers assume that only a relatively small percentage of its mobile device users use the cellular communication network at the same time.
Ordinarily, service provider assumptions are correct and cellular communications networks accommodate all mobile device users. However, events can sometimes prompt people to reach for their mobile devices at the same time, overloading the network's capacity. For example, if an accident occurs during rush hour, a dozen witnesses may call the police at the same time to report the accident, while the resulting traffic delay prompts hundreds of others to call the office, their families or their appointments to say they will be late. In instances where the number of subscribers accessing the cellular communication network exceeds the network's capacity, some subscribers may be denied service and callers trying to reach subscribers within the overloaded cell zone will receive a message to the effect that “all circuits are busy, try again later.”
In most everyday instances, the average mobile device call is truly not urgent. As such, it is normally only a minor inconvenience when a mobile device call is not connected through on the first attempt. However, this may not be true for all mobile device calls. For example, emergency response personnel attempting to respond to a traffic accident may need to send and receive mobile device calls in order to render assistance. In such cases and for such users the reliability of their mobile devices may literally be a matter of life and death. Yet it is human nature to reach for the mobile device in an emergency situation, the very instant when emergency responders need reliable communications. Thus, cellular communication networks should be able to provide emergency response personnel with reliable cellular communications even when heavy call volume exceeds the capacity of the cellular communication network.
One response to this need is Wireless Priority Access (WPA) which provides emergency response personnel with priority access to commercial cellular communication networks during times of emergency. In order to use WPA, emergency response personnel must pre-register their mobile devices with their cellular communication network service provider. Then, if the pre-registered emergency response personnel user is unable to access the cellular communication network because of increased call volume, the user can dial *272+Destination Number and push the SEND key (Example: *272 703 650 0100+SEND). The cellular communication network equipment will recognize the *272 prefix as a WPA access request and search a database for the mobile device's unique identification number to confirm that the mobile device is entitled to priority access. If the mobile device is properly authorized, the call will be given priority in the network queue, enabling the user to complete the call.
The WPA system is not without its problems, however. For one, WPA is meant only for key leadership personnel and their direct supporting staff who are in national security and emergency response leadership positions. In order to be authorized for WPA, the mobile device must belong to/be in control of a user who is one of the following: 1) Executive Leadership and Policy Makers; 2) Disaster Response/Military Command and Control; 3) Public Health, Safety, and Law Enforcement Command; 4) Public Services/Utilities and Public Welfare; and 5) Disaster Recovery. Further, a WPA authorized user's position in the call queue will depend on the user's position in the hierarchy above.
From the listing above, it can be seen that WPA is unavailable to most emergency response personnel. As a result many “on the ground” emergency personnel may be left without cellular communication access just as if they are members of the general public. Yet the emergency personnel who are the first to respond to an emergency situation are the ones who need reliable communication access the most. Thus, WPA fails to satisfy the most common and likely situations in which preferred access to cellular communications networks is required.
Another problem with WPA is that the system only provides one way access to cellular communication networks. That is to say, WPA only allows authorized mobile devices to place a call in times of increased call volume by placing its call request ahead in the queue. Those trying to call an authorized mobile device will hear that the networks are busy. Additionally, the priority access in the queue only insures that a call initiated by the WPA authorized mobile device to a landline based telephone stations, denying use of mobile devices for coordination of on-site personnel. These limitations undercut the value of mobile devices as ubiquitous mobile communications devices.